Pennine Ranger

Saturday, 27 December 2014

So it snowed a bit round Sheffield last night and I always enjoy the frustration, futility and occasional success of trying to ride a bike in deep snow. No more words. Just some pics, still warm from the camera. I'm off for some hot soup.

Tuesday, 15 July 2014

I took an early morning ride. (Some, including me, would say ridiculously early - I was out of the house by just gone 6am.) The reason for this crack of sparrowfart start was to go and have a peek at the work Derbyshire County Council are doing on the steep section of Stanage Long Causeway.

DCC have closed it off to public access during the week until the end of August.

It appears that following last year's resurfacing work (/fiasco/vandalism) they have undertaken some consultation with the national park authority before beginning the next phase of smoothing out Derbyshire. Ride Sheffield reported on this recently.

Here are some pics, taken from the junction of the causeway and the top path to Stanage End via High Neb.

Start of the latest section to be resurfaced

New drainage gully across the track and a few exposed rocks at the edge. Most of the original rocks appear to have been either removed or covered up

It all looks a bit sanitised

Where has all the previously exposed bedrock gone?

Drainage gulley

Looking back up the track

I've got mixed feelings about this. It's more in keeping with the surroundings than last year's work was (although that is now starting to wash out in places and resume a slight;y more natural appearance) but it still seems rather too neat and tidy - more like a garden rockery. I don't see why some of the larger rocks further down on the right hand side could not have been retained but it looks like they've gone.

Once it's open again, I have a feeling that the Long Causeway may see more mountain bikers using the route than in the past. It will cut at least 5 minutes off my time to the office, when I ride in! We now need to wait and see if the PDNPA can get a TRO in place to exclude motorised vehicles from coming back onto it.

If you want to know or be reminded of how it looked before all this began, here's a video of the ride from Redmires across the Causeway to Dennis Knoll made in March 2013